fox won the cable race. >> and one out of every six. go fox. >> i think that's it. bye-bye. we're done. >> bret: survey says, round one goes to romney. how both sides say he won the debate. how the president lost and where we go from here. this is "special report". good evening. i'm bret baier. mitt romney is hoping to take the ball and run with it after what was by most accounts a winning performance in the first of three debates with president obama. governor romney running mate, paul ryan, will be at a rally in virginia in a few minutes. the candidates are spreading out to some of the most hotly contested battle grounds after romney's gather not guilty virginia, he will move on to florida tomorrow. president obama had an event in denver, then in wisconsin today

and goes on to virginia and ohio friday. we have fox team coverage tonight. jim angle has a fact check on last night's most heated issue, tax policy. ed henry has the obama campaign reaction. and we begin with carl cameron on the first debate. good evening, carl. >> hi, brett. the romney campaign could hardly be more excited about what happened last night. in fact, since the debate ended, they say they've been getting two donations per second as a measure of mitt romney's success the morning after is general election debate debut against the president, mitt romney made a surprise appearance to a thrilled and leaved audience of conservatives. >> last night i thought was a great opportunity for the american people to see two very different visions for the country. >> he reiterated a new attack. >> trickle down government that the president proposes is one where he will raise taxes on small business, which will kill

jobs. i instead want to keep taxes down on small business so we can create jobs. >> romney awoke to rave reviews across the country and democrats admit he delivered. >> virtually everything you said about my tax plan is inaccurate. that's the wrong way to go. we know that the path we're taking is not work that you're entitled to your own plane and house but not your own facts. >> quoting, though not by name, saying the middle class has been buried over the last four years. >> the people having a hard time right now are middle income americans. under the president's policies, middle income americans have been buried. they're being crushed. >> romney was loose and managed to all but call the president an immature fibber without being rude. >> governor romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut. on top of the extension to the bush tax cuts. >> i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. i don't have a tax cut. of a scale that you're talking about. i will not reduce the share paid

by high income individuals. i know that you and your running mate keep saying that and i know it's a popular thing to say with a lot of people burks it's just not the case. look, i got five boys, i'm used to people saying something that's not always true. >> health care, romney was on offense, touting what he passed in massachusetts as an example of a bipartisan compromise and a model for the whole country at the state level. >> we've seen this model work really well. in massachusetts because governor romney did a good thing, working with democrats in the state to set up what is essentially the identical model. >> i like the way we did it in massachusetts. entirely on a partisan basis instead of bringing america together and having a discussion at this important topic, you pushed through something that you and nancy pelosi and harry reid thought something was the best answer and drove it through. what we did in a legislature 87% democrat, we worked together, whisking aside the 10th amendment which gives states the

rights for these kinds of things. is not the course for america to have a stronger more vibrant economy. >> romney delivered a conservative argument and criticism over the obama agenda that the right has been clamoring for. when wall street regulation came up, he made a more centrist approach, repeatedly pointing out his support for regulation while eliminating excess. >> i'd have regulation, but i wouldn't designate five banks as too big to fail and give them a blank check. that's one of the unintended consequences of dodd frank. it wasn't thought through properly. we need to get rid of it because it's killing regional and small banks. >> the romney-ryan ticket plansa agenda amounting to trickle down government, both romney and his running mate will be appearing here in virginia today. another campaign stop tomorrow and then florida through the weekend, precede ago big foreign policy speech on monday. brett. >> bret: carl, thank you. spin cycle, damage control, whatever you want to call it. president obama and his people are doing it on this day after the debate.

here is ed henry. >> i met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be mitt romney. >> at his had first rally after the debate debauchle, president obama immediately went on the attack, saying his performance was not as fine as his top campaign advisors are insisting. >> the man on stage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real mitt romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year and that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year. >> yet even some veteran democrats didn't seem to be buying that explanation. >> i don't think the president took him very seriously and he should have and for a large part, the president just looked bored and wanted to get this darn thing over with. >> in the spin room last night, and on the morning talk show circuit today, the obama camp was pushing a much different

narrative, claiming mitt romney only won through rehearsed lines and lies. >> he may win the oscar for his performance, but he's not going to win the presidency for his performance last night. >> something that i think clint eastwood would be proud of. but on substance, his positions were just as empty as the chair that mr. eastwood had on stage. >> obama voters at this rally in denver did not completely agree, telling us while they will still support the president, they think romney scored with more than just style. >> i think he's out there and did he show some gravitas. i hope this will take us to the policy discussions. >> i think romney gave a good forceful discussion of the views that he interprets them, but i don't believe he was honest. >> in the debate, the president repeatedly failed to counter punch, missing opportunities to bring up romney's tax returns and offshore accounts when he pushed back on a charge about tax credits for jobs being shipped overseas.

>> i've been in business for 25 years. i have no idea what you're talking about. i maybe need to get a new accountant. >> today the president seemed to be trying outlines he wished he had used last night. >> we know for sure if was not the real mitt romney because he seems to be doing just fine with his current accountant. >> still the white house looks rattled. with senior advisor david plouffe taking the rare step of briefing reporters aboard air force one for 15 minutes to charge romney is dishonest and then chide, is he going to take the lead in ohio? if he doesn't, he's not going to be president. msnbc political analyst speculated today the obama camp may be panicked enough to unveil some opposition research on romney. >> let's see in the next 24, 48 hours to say we need to turn the page with something new. some other video or some other thing. >> the obama camp had no problem slamming hillary clinton in the 2008 primary, top democrats privately tell me that part of

mr. obama's strategy was hold back on the attack because it might look beneath the dig dignity of the office. >> no subject was more hotly contested last night than tax policy. jim angle takes a look at the fact and the fiction behind the claims. >> the two candidates jousted over taxes throughout the debate, romney wants to reduce tax rates by 20% across the board. but says he would keep a definite sit neutral by trimming some of the $1.2 trillion a year in tax deductions. president obama argues there aren't enough deductions that affect only the rich, so romney would have to hit the middle class. >> the only way to meet governor romney's pledge of not reducing the deficit or not adding to the deficit is by burdening middle class families, the average middle class family with children would pay $2,000 more. >> others have estimated the

total value of the tax cuts would be some $5 trillion over ten years. governor romney says he will keep it deficit neutral and pledges there is one thing he won't do no matter what. >> i will not under any circumstances, raise taxes on middle income families. i will lower taxes on middle income families. now, you kite a study. there is six other studies that looked at the study you described and say it's completely wrong. >> the president based his assertion about a $2,000 tax increase on a study by the tax policy center which had exempted some tax deductions from any cuts in its analysis. then it concluded the plan could only be deficit neutral with a tax hike on the middle class and obama ads are hammering away. >> why won't obama level with us about the tax plans. >> the tax policy center, however, later changed its assessment. it said if romney put all deductions on the chopping block, then, quote, there is no reason why that full reform proposal would have to raise taxes on middle class

households. and a tax policy center scholar objected to the way the obama campaign used their research, saying, quote, i don't interpret this as evidence that governor romney wants to increase taxes on the middle class in order to cut taxes for the rich as an obama campaign ad claims. rather than go through the tax code, deduction by deduction, romney offered a simple answer, saying we could just put a cap on the total value of tax deductions, any one taxpayer could claim. >> one way would be to have a single number. make up a number, 25,000, $50,000, anybody could have deductions up to that amount and then that number disappears for high income people. >> rick: romney pledged high income people would pay the same share of total taxes they pay now. the president has his own tax plan. to raise money on those making 250,000 a year. romney said the president's own words show why that's a bad idea. >> in 2010, you said look, i'm going to extend the tax policies that we have now. i'm not going to raise taxes on

anyone because when the economy is growing slow like this, we're in recession, you shouldn't raise taxes on anyone. >> now, when the president said that, the economy was growing at 2.3%, the latest quarter was revised downward to 1.3%. the president stuck to his guns in the debate last night, still calling for an increase in taxes on the better off. bret? >> bret: governor romney got into the weeds and he didn't have the chalk board. >> no, he was pretty smooth on this. he was ready. >> all right. thank you. al gore has an explanation for what happened in last night's debate and i promise you, you're probably not going to believe it. that's later. up next a much more serious conscience of the internal debate after the u.s. attack in libya it's time for swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth in easy to use packets. mix it into skillet dishes, for an instant dose of...

hell-o! [ female announcer ] get recipes at flavorboost.com. like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, yoargeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days,

and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. humans -- sometimes life trips us up. and sometimes, we trip ourselves up, but that's okay. at liberty mutual insurance we can "untrip" you as you go through your life with personalized policies and discounts when you need them most. just call... and speak with a licensed representative about saving on your policy when you get married, move into a new house... [crash!] or add a car to your policy. don't forget to ask about saving up to 10% when you combine your auto d home insurance wi liberty mutual. security, coverage, and savings. all the things humans need to make our beautifully imperfect world a little lesimperfect. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months.

liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? >> bret: we have a better idea tonight of what we want on inside the obama administration right after the deadly attack on the u.s. mission in libya. this comes as we get new information about the investigation into that assault. james rosen has the latest. >> you should not assume that all that we could do or have been doing is restricted solely to benghazi. >> f.b.i. agents only today made their first for ainto the consulate compound, almost a month after the attacks and

escorted by u.s. military personnel. >> we've not been sitting around waiting for information to come to us. we've been actively chasing leads in various ways. >> earlier this week, the "washington post" published sensitive papers that a reporter retrieved from the consulate grounds, including an hourly schedule for ambassador steves for the day he died. >> frankly, none of us was surprised to see them at the site. >> fox news learned security aides to president obama and intelligence officials remained divided longer than has been disclosed about how to characterize the benghazi attacking to the public. the team made a secret finding of terrorism by september 1, so it could use a 2001 antiterrorism statute to move around more freely men, and material. yet the debate continued and intensified once soup rice made the sunday show rounds to say it was the result of a spontaneous mob. >> we don't see signs this was a

coordinated plan, remeditated attack. >> the next day, fox news learned officials contacted several independent security contractors to review post attack footage of the annex where two ex navy seals were killed. the contractors found that the impact angles and fragmentation patterns of the mortar damage revealed at least two mortar teams using gps devices to score direct hits on their first shots. the intelligence officials who already believed the attacks to be coordinated and professional used these outside assessments internally to rebut the rice narrative and the very next day, the nation's top counterterrorism official ended the dispute for good. >> certainly on that particular question i would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy. >> the state department disclosed that its own internal panel reviewing the genie episode, the accountability review board or arb, met for the first time today, chairing the board is thomas pickerring and among its members, is the former chairman of the joint chiefs of

staff, admiral mike mullen. the arb is supposed to report its findings to secretary of state clinton within 60 days time unless pickerring requests more time. >> bret: we're learning more every day. thank you. yemeni officials say a suspected u.s. drone strike killed at least five al-qaeda linked militants today in southern yemen. the five known dead were in one of two cars hit. no word on casualties in the other vehicle. a possible escalation of the syrian civil war now turkey's parliament approved military action against syria after an attack and an apology. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is watching how that could affect the u.s. from the pentagon. >> turkey stopped short of declaring war on its neighbor, syria, after the syrian military fired a shell across the border, killing five turkish civilians. among them, three children. but today the turkish parliament authorized incursions if necessary, into syria by its army which has been massing at the border in recent months.

they asked nato allies to meet for a late night session. for 18 hours after the initial shell was fired near a border crossing used by the opposition, they fired guided artillery back across the border at syrian targets. >> from our perspective, the response that turkey made was appropriate. >> strong words, but little action followed. the obama administration attempted solidarity, but made clear it had no intention of intervening, even though the nato charter says an attack on one is an attack on all. >> turkey is a core ally of the united states and this sort of cross border military activity is very destabilizing and must be stopped. >> we are outraged by the syrian government's actions along the turk irk border. we stand with our turkish allies. >> the leadership realized its

miscalculation and offered an apology. >> deepest condolences of the government of syria were presented. >> the turks took the issue to the u.n. security council where russia has consistently blocked any kind of action against the syrian regime. >> neither nato nor the u.n. security council has actually made the kind of decision that turkey wants on this issue, so in a way, it finds itself isolated and it's a position of great discomfort to the turkish prime minister. >> moments ago, the u.n. security council condemned the mortar attack on the turkish border town, but the turkish army believes it already has what it needs to cross into syria if provoked again. >> bret: jennifer, thank you. still ahead, florida's voter fraud scandal is getting nasty for republicans. first, certain words are so inflammatory, they're almost unheard of here in washington. a republican senator uses one for the obama administration does your phone give you all day battery life ?

droid does. and does it launch apps by voice while learning your voice ? launch cab4me. droid does. keep left at the fork. does it do turn-by-turn navigation ? droid does. with verizon, america's largest 4g lte network, and motorola, droid does. get $100 off select motorola 4g lte smartphones like the droid razr.

mike rowe here at a ford tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. buy four select tires, get a $60 rebate. use the ford service credit credit card, get $60 more. that's up to $120. where did you get that sweater vest? your ford dealer. new pink lemonade 5-hour energy? 5-hour energy supports the avon foundation for women breast cancer crusade. so i can get the energized feeling i need and support a great cause? i'm sold. pink lemonade 5-hour energy? yeah and a portion of every sale goes to the avon foundation for women breast cancer crusade. i'm sold. new pink lemonade 5-hour energy. get the alert, energized feeling you need and support breast cancer research and access to care.

>> bret: retailers are reporting slower but fairly strong sales in september and stocks were up today. dow gained 81. the s & p 500 finished ahead 10. the nasdaq was up 14. with each passing day, the prospect of massive defense cuts comes closer to reality. now one republican senator has some incredibly strong language about the obama administration's recent directive to defense contractors. we've been on this story since the beginning. mike emmanuel is here with today's development. >> good evening. a key member of the senate armed services committee, senator lindsey graham, says we are in danger of no longer being a rule of law nation. >> this is a huge deal and it is a mini queue.

you're having the executive branch unilaterally telling the private sector to ignore a congressional statute, again, what kind of precedents in the future? >> he's angry will about this memo which says, quote, dol, department of labor, concluded that it is neither necessary nor appropriate for federal contractors to provide act notice to employees 60 days in advance of the potential sequestration because of uncertainty about whether sequestration will occur and if it did, what effect it would have on particular contracts. the administration also notes even if this sequester were to occur, the pentagon does not expect to terminate or substantially modify contracts until months after january 2. lockheed martin is one defense contractor that has said it will honor the administration's request to hold off sending outlay-off notices. the defense contractors have been assured if there are lawsuits filed against them, the administration is planning to

pick up the tab on their legal fees. graham says the law is clear and sequestration is reality for now. >> that's an absurd interpretation. of course you can change any statute, but until it's changed, it has to be complied with. and right now there is no agreement in the congress with the white house. >> senator john mccain estimates the price tag if sequestration happens and the pentagon needs to reimburse contractors for severance cost could be $4 billion. in a letter to defense secretary leon panetta, mccain says he plans to deny any transfer of money that could have been avoided by complying with the law. brett? >> bret: stay on it. thank you. brick shipyard workers clashed with police after they forced their way into the defense ministry compound. more austerity protest elsewhere in athens. rallies against proposals that would cut salaries and personnel. one world leader plans on

turning 60 in style. you simply will not believe al gore's excuse for president obama's performance at the debate. grapevine is next

>> bret: now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine. we've looked at the presidential debate from a number of different angles since it ended. and so have the other networks, of course. as we told you earlier, pundits and polls seem to agree that president obama lost the debate to governor romney. governor romney having a good night. but some of the possible reasons that the president was off his game are raising some eyebrows. here is former vice president al gore. >> obama arrived in denver at 2:00 p.m. today just a few hours before the debate started. romney did his debate prep in denver. when go to 5,000 feet and you only have a few hours to adjust,

i don't know. maybe -- >> bret: so again, the former vice president said it was the amount do you do. bob woodward, who published a behind the scenes book about president obama has another theory. >> something happened. maybe in foreign affairs, they got some intelligence report or something -- who knows? but i think as the onion gets peeled on this, we'll find that something happened in his presidential or personal life that distracted him. >> bret: just a look back, you may remember president obama cracked one liners at the white house correspondence dinner right after giving the green light for the osama bin laden raid. the air traffic controllers union and the denver airport control tower may have some communication issues as governor romney's plane was preparing to go wheels up from denver this morning. the pilot announced on the speakers that the air traffic controllers in the tower were

congratulating the governor on his debate performance and his plane was cleared for takeoff first. the folks in the tower probably did not check with their union first, which long ago declared its support for the democratic ticket. and finally, russian president putin is no stranger to the grapevine. he likes to show off his rugged side for his country, now the country is looking to give back a little bit for his 60th birthday. the lavish plans include stage poetry readings, pullup competitions, an art exhibit titled, the president, most kind hearted man. some of the president's strongest supporters are even proposing to make 2012 the year of the putin. with less than five weeks before election day, a voter fraud investigation in one key state is getting serious. eric shaun tells us what's going on in florida. >> in florida, the state asked all 67 county voting supervisors

to review every voter registration form submitted by the republican party. this comes at the florida department of law enforcement has opened a criminal investigation into a gop voter registration contractor accused of filing phony forms. the company, strategic allied consulting, has been fired by the state and rnc after allegations that faulty registrations have shown up at election boards across the state. >> it causes voters to think the whole system is not working. the system is work. it's people outside the system are coming into it and trying to profit from it. >> the company says it is cooperating and blames the problems on a few x workers. in colorado, this allied worker registering republicans was fired after she was videotaped falsely claiming she worked for the government. >> we're working for the county clerk's office. >> others say the registrations point to a deeper problem. >> we need a federal law that says you can not misrepresent yourself if you are a voter

registration worker and in these states, they have to stop paying people by the registration and specifically by the party registration. >> besides florida and colorado, the company also registered republicans in nevada, virginia and north carolina. but because of the allegations, it has halted all voter registration efforts for november's election. bret? >> bret: thank you. we'll continue to follow it. what do you think of the voter fraud scandal in florida if let me know on twitter. you can follow me at bret baier. how mitt romney won and how president obama lost, according to both sides. we'll go over last night's debate and what it means now. the fox all stars are up next ♪

[ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪ reach one customer at a time? ♪ or help doctors turn billions of bytes

of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it.

>> bret: the department of -- >> the department of energy says the tax break for oil companies is $2.8 billion a year, and it's an accounting treatment that's been in place for 100 years. >> time to ends it. >> and in one year, you provided $90 billion in breaks to the green energy world. you say exxon and mobil. this goes largely to small companies to drilling operators and so forth. but if we get that tax rate from 35% down to 25%, why, that $2.8 billion is on the table. don't forget, you put $90 billion, like 50 years worth of breaks into solar and wind to

solyndra and fisker and tesla and others. i had a friend who said you tonight's just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers. >> winners and losers last night, both sides of the aisle saying governor romney had a big night in very detailed answers. energetic and aggressive throughout and president obama's reaction came under a lot of scrutiny. there was one prediction that seemed to come true. new jersey governor chris christie last sunday said this. >> wednesday night, mitt romney is going to be standing on the same stage with the president of the united states and i am telling you, come thursday morning, the entire narrative of this race is going to change. >> bret: has it changed? has it completely changed? we don't know that yet. i do want to put up the debate timing. how much time each candidate had. a lot of people asked this question last night. president obama actually had more time. 42 minutes and 40 seconds. this is actual talk time in the debate.

and romney, 38 minutes and 14 seconds. however, arguably governor romney made a lot more use of the 38 minutes, 14 seconds. let's bring in our panel. judge andrew napolitano, kirsten powers, and charles krauthammer. judge? >> i'm surprised at the number you just put up, having watched it and having seen some reruns this morning, i really thought governor romney was so compelling, spoke more. i have criticized him for not putting a fire in voters bellies and said he puts the audiences to sleep. not last night. chris christie was right. the governor was aggressive without being offensive. he was knowledgeable without being wonky. he was articulate without being boring. he was funny when it was necessary. he showed deference and respect to the president. it was almost the opposite of the way the president was. he seemed bored. he was boring himself. the only thing he didn't do that he could have done was a george h.w. bush, what time is it, it's

time for me to go home, reference to the debate in 1992. however you measure these things, whether winning it means anything or not, chris christie may have been on to something. this might change the vector ever so much, this might change the momentum a little bit a months before election day. >> bret: clearly kirsten in that spin room, the dynamic was stark. i mean, there were only four obama folks with signs and they were not telling a good story and there were 12 or 14 romney surrogates who were telling a big story in that spin room. i want to play what david axelrod said on msnbc this morning and another democrat reacting to it. >> the president's never satisfied with his performance. he's always challenging himself and he will this. he'll review it and if he wants to make some changes in the next debate, he'll do so. what he was satisfied with is that he went and he told the american people the truth and i

think he's fairly well convinced that governor romney didn't meet that standard. >> i don't think the president took him very seriously and he should have and for a large part, the president just looked bored and wanted to get this darn thing over with. >> bret: congressman rangel agreeing with the judge there. >> you're right. the campaign, they knew he lost. that's why they weren't coming out in force to spin for him because i was told by someone that many were inconsolable. because the strategy was to play it safe. let romney attack them. they think that only benefits romney if they get in a fight. the president needs to stay above the fray and that was the plan. the problem is the president played it too safe. and then in addition to that, what everyone has been talking about, this snippy, contemptous, even weak body language that he

romney, he just waseven looking disengaged and so rather than playing it safe and running out the clock, he actually did harm to himself. >> bret: altitude? >> i think it was altitude, yeah. >> bret: charles? >> they're playing mumble in my answers because i was on an airplane today. i'm recovering from altitude. look, people say, obama was off his game. this is his game. you take away a prompter, this is his game. he'll occasionally give a great speech, but if you look at him in his news conferences, which you don't have a prompter and the president has more control, he gets to decide who the questioner is and how long he talks, and what parts of an answer he'll give, he never does well. so this is who he is. i think people -- he's intelligent, but he isn't half as intelligent as he thinks he is and as most of his acolytes who have treated him in a messianic way for a half decade or so think he is.

and romney was, i think this is obviously romney at his best. but i think he made a great tactical decision. it was the first five minutes he spent on defense, but in a very kind of aggressive way. he's been the recipient of a barrage of unending barrage of negative ads, which is why in a swing states where the ads are running, his numbers are worse than they are nationally. and what he did is he took him head on. all the ads, over the ad tops where he's a guy who nome lays off steelworkers, but kills their wives, that stuff which is on over and over begun, all he had to do was show up without horns on his head and he wins that one, but he did better. he was tough, but he was respectful, affable and nonthreatening. it's the double-edged sword of a negative ad. it works unless and until people actually see the guy. and when they see the guy in the negative ads are so the variance

with the real guy, then you get this amazing reaction. cbs polled 56% of americans saying that their opinion of romney changed for the better. that's half of america because all they've known of him is what the negative obama ads and the main stream media, which is sort of a redundant city, has been saying about him. >> bret: i want to play another exchange between president obama and governor romney's response where president obama is talking about tax policy in these i understand penitentiary studies about -- independent studies about raising taxes on middle income families. >> that's why i understand penitentiary studies looking at this said the only way to meet governor romney's pledge of not reducing the deficit or not adding to the deficit is by burdening middle class families -- >> i got five boys. i'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping i'll

believe it. >> bret: it went really point by point, every time the president came at him, he went back not only with specifics while the obama campaign says there were not specifics in his answers on the tax policy question, jim angle's piece kind of dealt with that from the debate, but also on the rhetorical coming back at him like the five boys answer every time. >> the five boys answer that you just played is a perfect example of his brilliant performance last night because it is humorous, it is calling the president a liar and the president didn't reply to it. he just didn't respond in any way. either he was right and the president wasn't paying attention and didn't realize, comparing the president of the united states to children at a dinner table who say the same thing over and over again in the hopes that the parents will believe it, or he din think it was worthy of response.

it was a great criticism, couched in the form of humor. it made its point and barak obama just let it pass. he didn't do anything to resist it. >> bret: how is the obama campaign going to bounce back or planning on bouncing back here? >> i think they're planning on doing a better job next time. and in terms of chris christie was saying this could change the entire narrative, that's an overstatement. one debate is not going to change the entire narrative. it keeps the race going. i think that a lot of people going in thought that romney was sort of on the ropes and a lot of obama supporters wanted a knockout punch and they didn't get it. but the next debate is a town hall format, which is going to i think, be good for the president and he's somebody who has some sort of psychological issue where he has to always be behind. so did he this with hillary and mccain of the he always has to be behind. i would expect he'll come back the next time probably a lot stronger. >> bret: dr. charles krauthammer, any comments? >> i'm still licensed, but i don't practice on the air.

i play a physician on the air. he may or may not have the psychological problems, but he does do well when he's behind. so i'll take a pass on that. >> bret: we'll move on. battle ground states, campaign strategy and where we go from here. so anyway, i've been to a lot of places. you know, i've helped a lot of people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange.

(sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

>> the man on stage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real mitt romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year. and that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year. >> last night i thought was a great opportunity for the american people to see two very different visions for the

country. and i think it was helpful to be able to describe those visions. i saw the president's vision as trickle down government and i don't think that's what america believes in. >> bret: president obama and governor romney today on the campaign trail. obviously the next debate down in kentucky, the vice presidential debate. that should be interesting with vice president biden and congressman ryan. vice president biden was on the trail today as well talking tax policy. listen carefully to how he describes the attacks on the obama-biden tax plan. >> on top of the trillion dollars of spending we've already cut, we're going to ask, yes, we're going to ask the wealthy to pay more. my heart breaks. come on, man. you know the phrase you always use, obama and biden want to raise taxes by $8 trillion. guess what? yes, we do in one regard, we

want to let that trillion dollars tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burdens of all that money going to the super wealthy. that's not a tax rate. that's called fairness where i come from! >> bret: the potential for a republican commercial to end at yes, we do, charles, is pretty high. >> how much are our guys paying him, because it isn't enough. this guy is terrific for us. the gaffe here isn't only the trillion dollars, it's the part where he calls -- was that the super rich? the super billionaire as soon as super wealthy. he is talking about people who aren't $250,000 a year, people who own a dry cleaning? and enterprise and they are the super wealthy. i mean, he's the gift that republicans love because he's always there, who will give you something once a week. on the serious side because it's really -- i think people will discounts what he says because it's biden.

they'll say well, he's off on his own again. but from obama, you saw those quips he was tossing out. the stuff that you wish you had said, all the witty remarks and rebuttals that you never said at the dinner, but you remember on the way out. so he had all of these chances last night, which again shows he doesn't have a good game when it comes to being quick and effective on his feet, he's trying to make up for it. but what's going to happen in the second debate, it's going to be a town hall. that's different dynamic, how you interact with the audience. that's where, for example, bush did badly. bush won and clinton did really well. so that's going to be a challenge. romney is really good one on one. it will be different in a town hall for him. >> bret: we have the wit of the staircase sometimes here on the panel. when we leave the panel, man, why didn't i say that.

>> i have the wit of the car every night. [ laughter ] >> bret: speaking of the biden-ryan set-up as we got ready to head to kentucky, kirsten, you listen to that sound bite and you heard charles say, oh, it's just biden. there are people who look at joe biden and say, listen, he really identifies with middle class folks. he can be gaffe prone, but he also can be good. his speech at the democratic convention was arguably very good. setting the table for that debate, we'll have plenty of days to talk about it, but bouncing off that sound bite? >> he is good. that's not the point. the point is that if you were to string together a couple months worth of his comments such as the middle class has been buried under the obama administration, i mean, these are things that i think other people if they said would paint a very frightening picture to people of the administration. but he is allowed to continue to do this. so the set-up is, we go in with the lowest of lowest of lowest

of expectations of him, expecting him to say even crazy things, or things that are factually not true. and so it's going to be very difficult for, i think -- it will be difficult for anyone to say he has done something that crossed some line that he shouldn't cross. >> bret: i want to end on this one points, we didn't cover it. the controversy about big bird. and believe it or not, there are some quarters that are very upset about that this. take a listen to governor romney and president obama today. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. i like pbs, i love big bird. i like you, too, but i'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from china. >> thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. that's about time. we didn't know that big bird was driving the federal deficit.

but that's what we heard last night. >> bret: in all seriousness, pbs released a statement today and they said, quote, we are very disappointed that pbs became a political target in the presidential debate. governor romney does not understand the value of american people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation. the federal investment and public broadcasting equals about one, 100th of 1% of the federal budget, elimination of funding would have virtually no impact on the nation's debt, yet the loss to the american public would be devastating. there are some people who say that that was not the best thing to mention, bringing up big bird. >> you're talking about somebody who does like pbs, but who believes the constitution means what it says. lyndon johnon persuade add democratic congress in 1965 that the federal government should own a television station, which became a television network. it's not authorized in the constitution, it's not intended for the federal government to do this. when mitt romney put his finger

on that, i'm thinking to myself, this is a symbol. this is a symbol of thousands of other things that the federal government is doing and borrowing money in order to do that mitt romney might stop if he becomes the president at the price of offending big bird. >> with romney on the rebound, i think big bird ought to worry. thanksgiving is coming up. [ laughter ] >> bret: that was a good bounce back after the nonanswer in the first panel. >> i want to leave that one at the bottom of the staircase. >> bret: that's it for the panel. stay tuned to see who president obama may be reaching out to now after that debate ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal.

and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. >> aouncer: meet tom, a proud dad whose online friends all "like" the photos he's posting. oscar likes tom's photos, but he loves the access to tom's personal information. oscar's an identity thief who used tom's personal fo to buy new teeth and a new car, and stuck tom with the $57,000 bill. [tires squeal] now meet carl who works from the . wi-fi. marie works from there too. she's an identity thief who used a small device to grab his wi-fi signal, then stole enough personal information to hijack and drain his bank accounts. every yemillions of americans learn all it may take to devastate your life is a little personal information in the wrong hands. this is identity theft and no

one helps stop it better than lifelock. lifelock offers the most comprehensive identity theft protection, period. ordinary credit monitoring services may take 30 days to alert you. lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection would have alerted tom as soon as they noticed an attack within their network, before it was too late. and lifelock's bank account takeover alerts could have notified carl in time to help him protect his money. lifelock protects your social security number, money, credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one protects you better than lifelock, and lifelock stands behind that with the power of their $1 million service guarantee. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and try 60 days of identity theft protection risk-free. 60 days risk-free. use promo code: be secure order now and get this document shredder, a $29 value free. [♪...]

call or go online now. [♪...] >> finally tonight, president obama is really trying to step up his efforts to reach out to potential voters especially after his performance last night in denver. so he visited a nevada campaign office and they put him on the phone and he tried to make the hard sell. >> you are the backbone of this campaign. we just got to keep it going for another few weeks. and, you know, everything you do ends up making a huge difference in us being able to win nevada and win the election. so just keep it up. >> oh, boy, that's great to hear. thank you, i appreciate that. [cheers] >> bret: that might be a